Saturday, November 27, 2010

Another Friday

The book-at-the-beach ritual on my day off continues to work. Sort of. The second day of the Class 1 Powerboat Championships provided a noisy but spectacular distraction out on the waters in front of my favourite terrasse. The roar of the fiendishly powerful maritime motors was augmented by that of the helicopters flying low to capture what must be incredible video of the high-speed aquatic action.


As the first photo shows, the reading selection for my third weekend was "The Templar Salvation" by Raymond Khoury. Now for many years I have been a fan of writing taking the Templars as the 'hook' on which to hang a jolly good yarn. This started when I read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" at the end of the seventies and in consequence actually took a trip to the mysterious village of Rennes-le-Chateau... (This was the book which inspired Dan Brown, it must be noted.)

Anyway... I feel entitled to be quite critical when it comes to titles in this sub-genre. Khoury's previous two titles I found rather lugubrious but "Salvation" rattles on at a decent pace and is a satisfactory read for any who have a taste for medieval Vatican villainy.

Sadly, however, Khoury seems to subscribe to the same 'literary service' used by David Baldacci in the book which I read on the first weekend in the Sandlands. I thoroughly enjoyed Baldacci's "camel club" titles which were irreverent espionage-and-intrigue thrillers with a great deal of wit.

But in "Deliver Us From Evil" he, like Khoury, has resorted to the service... I am convinced it must exist... which provides cut-and-paste passages of explicit and gratuitous violence to sex up otherwise perfectly serviceable manuscripts. One can sometimes fast-forward through almost an entire page of detailed description of torment, torture and excruciating pain before returning to the story unfolding.

Khoury also uses in this tale what must be a sub-set of this 'literary service'... the one which allows caves, caverns and subterranean passages to be configured a la carte to provide obstacles for the intrepid hero and heroine to overcome.

I must review some of my own mansuscripts. Here and there a dollop of 'N.F.T.S.' content, perhaps? That's 'Not For The Squeamish'!

1 comment:

jessimay said...

daddy with looong hair :D you look relaxed!